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A-Level Anthropology Course at Varndean College

The most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences.

Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human in diverse societies around the world today, and how people interact with and change their environments. We look at humanity from different angles including social and cultural as well as biological and evolutionary perspectives.

Anthropology is interested in all aspects of people’s lives; their habits, beliefs, rituals and myths. By studying the everyday details of people’s lives, anthropologists explore what makes us uniquely human and so culturally diverse.

Studying Studying Anthropology will offer you the chance to grapple with these fundamental questions and appreciate topical debates about personal identity, human rights, development, globalisation and ethnic conflict. You will be introduced to key ideas and critical reasoning skills which complement many A level subjects in the humanities and social and human sciences and will be equipped with skills needed for higher education and the complexities of “being human” in the modern world.

When your parents were born there were 6000 languages world-wide, but now half of these are no longer taught to school children. Anthropologist Wade Davis asks what does this mean for these cultures?

TOPICS COVERED

Unit 1: Being Human: Unity and Diversity

The biological and cultural significance of the human body

Ways of thinking and methods of communication

Kinship and family

Commodities and exchange including gifts

Engaging with nature

Unit 2: Becoming a Person: Identity and Belonging

What can be a ‘person’?

Rites of passage

Gender and sexuality

Creating an identity

Drawing boundaries between humans, animals and cyborgs

Race and ethnicity

Unit 3: Global and Local: Societies, Environments and Globalisation

‘Out of Africa’, migration, tourism and museums

Understanding globalisation – its forms and effects

Local responses to global processes including development and human rights

Impacts on the environment

Wars and Nationalism

Unit 4: Practising Anthropology: Methods and Investigations

Research methods and theory in Anthropology

The chance to conduct a smallscale anthropological investigation, assessed by means of an external written examination

FACTS

COURSES AVAILABLE

AS, A level

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Standard advanced course requirements including C grade or above in English Language GCSE

HOW THE COURSES ARE ASSESSED

100% exam

EXAMBOARD

AQA

WHERE DOES IT LEAD?

Anthropology is a rapidly growing Higher Education choice, but the A level will be good preparation for a range of higher education courses in the social and human sciences and humanities. An anthropological understanding of human beings will be useful for many careers involving working with or for people.